Hindustan Times 06.04.2010

Civic body to pay for cleaning drains on CR

In the pre-monsoon coordination meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Central Railway, it was decided that the civic body would pay for cleaning the nullahs and culverts on the railway premises.

The civic body has allocated Rs 59 lakh and Rs 68 lakh for the cleaning process in the city and in the eastern suburbs respectively.

“The CR will clean 40 culverts in their jurisdiction and 15 through-culverts (which don’t open in the railway premises) will be cleaned by the civic body,” said a civic official who attended the meeting.

“We have started our pre-monsoon work of desilting gutters along the tracks from this month,” said M. Chauhan, Divisional Railway Manager, and CR who was present at the meeting with the BMC commissioner.

The CR has also asked for dewatering pumps from BMC to place them in areas along the track that are prone to water-logging. “There are more than 30 culverts up to Kalyan and there is a need for at least 50 dewatering pumps to drain out water during heavy rains,” said a senior CR official.

The civic body’s sewage department also discussed the availability of land with the railway authorities for constructing toilets along the tracks.

“Our plan to build toilet blocks along the railway tracks has been stuck due to lack of space,” said a senior official from the sewerage department.

“There is tremendous shortage of water. We have asked the BMC to roll back the water cuts and the commissioner has assured immediate steps would be taken,” said Chauhan.

The railways have been identified as bulk consumers and so the civic body has imposed a 30 per cent water cut. “We are not going to lower the water cuts to the railways,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Anil Diggikar. A meeting with the Western Railway has been organised on April 8.